Man, that was embarrassing for me. Let's sweep that under the rug with new details about the newest piece of DLC for "Last Light," the "Tower" pack.

The "Tower" pack, which is coming out next Tuesday, the 3rd, is a set of combat challenges totally set apart from the narrative, environment, or timeline of "Metro: Last Light."

"One of our biggest goals for 'Metro: Last Light' was to overhaul our combat experience, particularly in light of the lackluster reception the gunplay in 'Metro 2033' earned," explains a post on the "Metro" blog. "We changed everything – from the control scheme, to our animation system, AI, projectile modelling, audio… We wanted to find the right balance between combat that felt deadly and satisfying, but also meant the player was always aware of their own frailties and weaknesses."

The "Tower" pack, then, is a way to let 4A Games' combat and level designers room to flex their muscles. It's set up like a virtual combat arena, a holographic training sim for aspirant Rangers.

As a result, the environments are more abstract, and the enemy and weapon types more free-flowing than they would have been in the more realistic campaign. You can see from the screenshots below, for example, that futuristic combat arenas replace "Last Light"'s cramped subterranean hallways and blighted topside fields.

The "Last Light" "Tower" pack is part of the game's Season Pass and will be released next week, with new online Leaderboards in tow, for $4.99 on Steam, PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live. Two more packs -- "Developer" and "Chronicles" -- will follow later this year.